Did You Know...

For most people, the Beltway-area sniper case is a distant memory. Over and done. But in Montgomery County, Md., the pain and suffering caused by convicted killing spree murderers Lee Malvo and John Muhammad is as fresh and raw as it was three years ago when the pair terrorized the area–leaving 10 dead and three injured in their wake.

This week, the snipers faced off against each other during Muhammad’s trial for six of the murders in Montgomery County. Muhammad is serving as his own lawyer. On the witness stand, Malvo revealed the chilling details of just how much terror the Muslim pair sought to inflict in this community–from bombings to mass murder of children and pregnant women to the random slaying of six white people a day for 30 days.

John Allen Muhammad had grand plans to extort millions of dollars from authorities in the 2002 Washington-area sniper shootings so he could set up a camp to train children how to terrorize cities and “shut things down,” accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo testified yesterday.

Asked whether he believed Muhammad’s plans, Malvo said yes.

“He’s a man of his word. If he tells you he is going to do something, it is done,” Malvo said. “If he says it, it is legit.”

Malvo, who had never before taken the witness stand against his fellow sniper, gave the most detailed account yet of the planning that went into the three-week shooting spree that left 10 people dead at gas stations and parking lots.

Malvo also said Muhammad devised a two-phase plan to shoot as many as six random people each day for 30 days in the Washington area and then target children and police officers with explosives. They planned to place explosives on school buses in Baltimore, kill a Baltimore police officer, and then set off explosives packed with ball bearings at the officer’s funeral.

When Malvo asked Muhammad why, he said, “For the sheer terror of it – the worst thing you can do to people is aim at their children.”

On another occasion, Muhammad wanted Malvo to shoot a pregnant woman. He dropped Malvo off at a cemetery overlooking a housing project in Baltimore.

Malvo said he saw four different pregnant women.

‘‘I just couldn’t take the shot,” Malvo said.

And the Telegraph fills in more in its report, ” The sniper’s plan: kill six whites a day for 30 days:”

Malvo testified that Muhammad, driven by hatred of America because of its “slavery, hypocrisy and foreign policy” and his belief that “the white man is the devil”, planned to kill six whites a day for 30 days.

Malvo alleged that Muhammad had said: “We are going to go to the Washington DC area and we are going to terrorise these people.”

They then intended to move to Baltimore for stage two of their campaign, to shoot a policeman and then blow up explosives at his funeral.

More explosives would target the ambulances that would then rush to the funeral. Another plan to kill three busloads of schoolchildren was thwarted because the pair were arrested when Malvo fell asleep while keeping watch at a Maryland petrol station.

Muhammad’s ultimate plan, Malvo testified, was to indoctrinate 140 young homeless men at a Canada compound who would “shut things down” in cities across America, unless they received £5 million.

And what kind of indoctrination would Muhammad and Malvo’s army have received to prepare them for their terrorist assaults on American cities? Hint: Try a six-letter word that starts with “M” and ends with “M.” The jailhouse drawings of Malvo are worth a thousands words. I’ve dug up a few from the Wayback Machine to refresh your memories: